St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-11-19

physical force to sustain him IN the
shock of earthly conflicts. From this
infinite blundcr Of parents how many
have come out in life with a ge-
MUS that could have piled Ossa
upon Pelion and mounted upon them to
scale the heavens, and have laid down
wanting with physical exhaustion before
mole hill They who might have
thrilled senates and marshaled armies
and startled the world with the shock of
their scientific batteries, have passed
their lives in picking up prescriptions for
indigestion. They owned all the thunder
bolts of Jupiter but could not get out of
their rocking chair to use them. George
Washington in early life was a poor
spellcr, and spelled hat h-a-dOuble-t and
a ream of paper he spelled ''rheam," but
he knew enough to spell out the indie
pendence of this country from foreign
| oppression. The knowledge of the
schools is important, but there are other
things quite as important.
just as great is the wrong done when
the mind is cultivated and the heart neg
lccted. The youth Of this day are sell
! dom denied any scholarly attainmcnts
! Our schools and >cminarics are ever
! growing in efficiency, and the students
| are conducted through all the realms of
/ philosophy, and art. and language, and
/ mathematics. The most hereditary OBJ
tuscness gives way before the onslaught
/ of adrOit instructors. But there is a
development Of infinite Importance which
mathematics and the dead languages
cannot affect. The more mental power
/ the more capacity for evil unless coupled
| with religious restraint You discover
/ what terrible power for evil unsanctlted
genius possesses when YOU see Scaligcr
/ with his sCathing denunciatiOn assault
ing the best men of his time, and Blount
and SpinOZa and BolingbrOke leading
/ their hosts of followers into the all-cOn
Stunning fires of skepticiSm and inf
deity. Whether knowledge is a mighty
good or an unmitigated evil de-
/ ponds entirely upon which course
| it takes. The river rolling on between
round banks makes all the valley laugh
with golden wheat and rank grass, and
catching hold the wheel Of mill and fac
tory, whirls it with great industries.
But, breaking away from restraints and
daShing over banks in red wrath, it
washes away harvests from their moor
ing and makes the valleys shrink with the
catastrophe. Fire in the furnace heats the
house or drives the steamer; but, unCOn-
trolled. warehouses go down in awful
crash before it, and in a few hours half
city will lie in black ruins, WI lis and
towers and churches and monuments.
on must accompany the education of
the intellect with the education of the
heart, or you are rOusing up within your
child an energy which will be blasting
and terrific. Bettera wicked Ounce than
wicked philosopher.
The fourth error often committed in
the training of children is the suppression
of childish sportfulnesS. The most tri-
umphant death Of any child that | ever
knew was that Of SCOVil)e Haynes Nc.
Column 4 few days before that, he was
at my house in Syracuse, and he ran like
a deer and his hallOO made the woods
echo. You could hear him coming
block off, so full was he of rOmp and
laughter and whistle Don't put religion
on your child as a straight jacket Par
ents after having for a good many years
been JOstled about in the rough world
often lose their vivacity, and are aston
ishedto see how their children can act so
thoughtlessly of the earnest world all
about them. That is a cruel parent who
quenches any of the light in child's
soul. Instead of arreStlng its spOrtful-
ness, go forth and help him trundle the
hoop, and fly the kite, and build the snow
castle. Those shoulders are too little TO
carry burden, that brow is too young
to be wrinkled, those feet are too
sprightly to 90 along at a funeral pace.
God bless their young hearts, Now is
the time for them to be SpOrtful. Let
them romp and sing and laugh, and go
with rush and a hurrah. In this way
they gather up a surplus of en-
ergy for future life. For the
child that walks around with
scowl, dragging his feet as though they
were weights, and sitting down by the
hour in moping and grumbling, proph-
esy life of utter hamilton and dis
content. Sooner hush the robins in the
air till they are silent as bat, and lee
ture the frisking lambs on the hillside
until they walk like old sheep, rather
than put exhilarant childhood in the
stocks.
The fifth error in the training of child
hood is the postponement of its moral
culture until too late Multitudes of
children because of their precocity have
been urged into depths of study where
they ought not to go, and their intellects
have been overburdened and overstrained
and battered to pieces against Latin gram
mars and algebras, and coming forth into
practical life they will hardly rise to
mediocrity, and there is now a stutfing
and examining system of education in the
schools of our country that is beautiful to
the teachers who have to enforce it, and
destructive to the children who must sub
NIT to the process. You find children at
nine and ten years of age with school
lessons only appropriate for children of
tifden. If children are kept in school
and studying from nine to three o'clock,
no home study except music ought to be
required of them. Six hours of study is
enough for any child. The rest of the
day ought to be devoted to recreation and
pure fun. But you cannot begin too
early the moral culture of child or on
too complete a scale. You can look
back upon your own life and remember
what mighty impressions were made
upon you at five or six years of age.
For all who are trying to do their duty
as parents | quote the tremendous pas
sage: Train up a child in the way in
which he should go, and when he is old
he will not depart from it," If through
good discipline and prayer and godly |
example you are acting upon that |
child you have the right to expect him